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Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Twitter Pitch Sessions- a post by Victoria

I’m sure most of you are familiar with just how amazing a
resource Twitter can be for writers, agents and editors alike. Aside from the
opportunity to learn more about agents and editors, there is #MSWL (Manuscript
Wish List), where you can learn the specifics of what’s on top of everyone’s
query wishlist. If you missed it, Susan Hawk, one my fellow TBA agents, wrote a
great blog post that you can check out here.

My favorite way to utilize the Twitterverse is participating
in organized pitch sessions, or Pitch Parties. These are such a good way to
connect with agents who you may have not thought to query.

Basically, using the specified hashtag, writers have the
length of one tweet—140 characters—to pitch their novel. For a designated time,
agents and editors then browse through those tweets and favorite the ones that
catch their eye and invite you to query them. Some of these hashtags include
#PitMad, #PitchMadness, #PitchMAS, #Adpit, just to name a few.

So without further ado, here are a few tips for your next
Twitter pitch session:

- Include your genre. This only takes up like three
characters if you abbreviate efficiently and is such a good way to grab an
agent’s attention.

- Keep pitching! These sessions last up to twelve hours and
it’s impossible for any one agent/editor to read all of the pitches, so you should tweet your pitch a few times
throughout the session to maximize your exposure.

- Vary it up. If your tweets aren’t getting as many
favorites as you’d like, perhaps it’s time to switch up your pitch.

- Use those comparative titles. This super-short pitch space
is a great time to utilize those “x meets y” comparisons.

- Be supportive. If
you see pitches that you like, help ‘em maximize their exposure and retweet
their pitches. But leave the favoriting to agents and editors; otherwise things
can get confusing.

3 comments:

Great post, Victoria! A pitch party led to a publishing contract for me, so I love that you are encouraging writers to get active on Twitter. There is a pitch event June 11, 2014 on #SFFpit for Science Fiction and Fantasy.